The top source of community news

[Richard Millington]

Who are the top guys for online community news? Where would we find the latest source of community news?

Guy Kawasaki, Jeremiah Owyang and Jack McKee would probably be up there. Each has community experience with huge brand names. But they are internally focused, not external.

We can do better. Much better.

We can make Commania the source of news about community professionals. This means more content. We need to share what we're doing. We need to talk more about our successes, failures and activities. We need to highlight what people outside of this community are achieving. There really isn't a place like this at the moment.

In the coming weeks we're going to see changes. First, there will be more news about what individual community professionals are doing. Second, we're going to have a community professional of the week and finally, community post of the week.

It would be great if more people can get involved. Leave a comment if you want to make suggestions.

Finally. If you have a blog post that's community news related. Drop me a message and I'll feature it on the main page.

[Paul C.]

Steve Hargadon has assembled over 18,000 teachers at the Classroom 2.0 Ning. He has a number of volunteers who help administer his site. It's interesting to see what he has accomplished.

[Matt Cheney]

I don't have a blog post, but I do have some interesting community news, and a cool business model.

A couple months back I joined Brian Clark's (of CopyBlogger) Partnering Profits course, and it's beta. It wasn't too expensive, and along with learning materials and conference calls, there was a promise of an exclusive forum.

Well, they launched the forum yesterday, and before getting in, I had to sign up with PayPal. It's free for all the early folks for a year, but after that, it's $47 per month (at least that what it says now). There has been a few posts since yesterday's launch.

What's interesting is that you're required to use your PayPal account and put your card on file (like iTunes). I wonder how many people didn't get past this barrier to entry? Beyond that, I wonder if people will contribute more because of perceived value (it's like $564 in free services) and also wonder if he'll keep the price after the 12 months.

I've never seen a business model like this, and wanted to share. As an aside, the whole site/forum is run off Joomla and FireBoard (it's really nice).

[Becky]

Richard, I don't have a blog post right now, but since DanvilleBusiness has hit 100+ members, things are picking up. I blogged about it a bit today. It's unusual I think in that now the site is taking a direction I hadn't considered - teen entrepreneurs and leaders joining - along with the Director of the organization. I think it will take off soon and I forsee a couple of issues - not member related, but still, I see them forming! I'll let you know when I post!

[Richard Millington]

Sure, please do invite people. I'm debating whether to keep this a closed community or open it up to the world again.

What do you think? Shall we open it?

And I agree that there needs to be a greater focus on what community pros are doing rather than saying.

[Angela Connor]

I too believe that we can do better. I think what we do in the trenches is what's important. This is still new on many levels. We have a lot to learn and share, and the same names aren't going to get us what we need. SM is turning into a rock star haven and I don't like that. Can I invite someone? I've met some cool community managers on twitter lately.